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Myōkō-Togakushi Renzan NP, Niigata
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In 2015, CNN’s photo feature placed Koyaike at No. 9 in its collection of 31 beautiful Japanese landscapes. The image credit names Japan’s Ministry of the Environment.
The hut beside Koyaike is so remote that Myoko tested drone resupply: one trial carried 26 kg of fuel on a 9.6-km round trip in about 15 minutes, versus roughly 5 hours on foot.
During winter predator research at the closed Koyaike Hutte, cameras caught a Japanese marten eating fried-chicken bait without springing one trap. At another, it wriggled free after being caught—and ate the bait.
Up the trail from Koyaike, Mt. Hiuchi shelters Japan’s northernmost ptarmigan population. Since 2020, local volunteers have cleared warming-favored grasses; by July 2026, Hakusan-kozakura bloomed in a restoration plot off the trail.
Winter’s heavy Japan Sea snow helps form Koyaike’s high moor as it melts. By late July, Myoko City says pink Hakusan-kozakura primroses bloom in clusters around the wetland.
Japan’s Important Wetlands inventory includes Koyaike among Myoko’s high moors, noting distinctive bog-plant communities and even a locally recorded diving beetle. Small wetlands can shelter remarkably specialized life.
